Two headstrong, ultra competitive colts, out to seal a stud future, filling the top two spots in the market and drawing barriers 3 and 5.
And they also happen to come from the same stable.
Trainer Mick Price must be feeling confident as he eyes off the 56th Blue Diamond Stakes (G1) Feb. 21 at Caulfield Racecourse with favorite Big Sky and second choice Guest House.
"I am feeling confident—confident that they've had pretty good training preparations, which is what we need to have from them," Price told ANZ News.
"Unfortunately training is not race-day level, and race day brings out all your mistakes, but if I've made a mistake, I can't see it at this point.
"I feel like I've been able to get my timing right on both of them, and both horses go in pretty spot on, I believe."
Price has won Victoria's 2-year-old showpiece twice previously, before Michael Kent Jr. joined him as co-trainer.
He did it with Extreme Choice in 2016, and that horse has duly gone on to become not just a sire but a super one, at Newgate Farm.
Price also did it with the filly Samaready four years earlier, and she's blossomed into an outstanding broodmare, leaving Golden Slipper (G1) winner and current Coolmore stallion Shinzo and his four-time stakes-winning sister Exhilarates.
Such storylines underscore the enduring significance to the breeding scene of the Blue Diamond.
In the 10 editions starting with Extreme Choice's, the race has been won by seven colts. All six who are old enough—not counting last year's winner Devil Night—have gone on to stand at stud.
Saturday's edition rings remarkably similar for Price as 2016. Extreme Choice started as the favorite and won clearly, by 1 3/4 lengths. Price also had the second-elect Flying Artie, and he ran second.
Yet price can't have gone into 2016 feeling like he was holding as strong a hand as he has for this edition a neat decade later.
For one thing, Extreme Choice had gate 11 and Flying Artie 15. If Saturday's emergencies come out, Big Sky will have gate 3 and Guest House 2.
Big Sky, a AU$140,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast yearling buy for Price bred by Queensland's Eureka Stud, has had a flawless preparation. After two jump outs, the Bivouac colt debuted with an effortless 2 3/4-length win in a 1,000-meter (about 5-furlong) 2-year-old handicap, taking to the Flemington straight like so many young horses don't.
Held back to the same trip, he strolled home arrogantly with a 3-length victory, again in a seven-horse field, in Caulfield's Chairman's Stakes (G3) Jan. 31.
That's given him three weeks between runs into Saturday, and it's the same as the path as the muscular Extreme Choice took into his Blue Diamond.
Guest House is on a two-week lead-in, the same as Samaready. A AU$270,000 Gold Coast buy for Price, Rogers Bloodstock and the Roll The Dice Racing concern whose colors he bears, the first-crop son of Coolmore's Home Affairs debuted with a three-quarter-length win in a field of 10 over 1,000 meters at Cranbourne's metro meeting Dec. 27.
But it was in defeat at his subsequent start in the Blue Diamond Prelude (G3), when he gave Saturday's rider Jamie Melham quite the torrid time, that he shone most impressively.
He may have run a 1-length second to Saturday's third favorite, the Danny O'Brien trained Closer To Free, but it was the obstacles he crashed through in getting there that pleased Price.
"I was very surprised when Guest House duffed the start in the Prelude and then charged into the bridle," the trainer said. "He was still game enough to run second, which I thought was a pretty good effort, because horses who miss the start, and then pull, and they're deep, and they've got no cover, and they're working—they don't usually run second."
Melham rode Guest House in some "very strong work" Feb. 17, Price said, while race rider Jordan Childs steered Big Sky.
"They're both going very well," Price said. "They don't work together, they don't need to work together. The last time we worked Guest House in company he overworked. He's very, very competitive. He's still got a fair bit to learn, that colt."
As is usually the case with the Blue Diamond, sitting early on the 2-year-old calendar as it does, one gnawing question concerns distance.
Big Sky hasn't been past 1,000 meters, while Guest House steps up past 1,100 meters for the first time in the 1,200-meter (about 6-furlong) Blue Diamond.
"You never really know but I'd be confident Big Sky will handle the trip," Price said. "He's not a small-barrel little pony. He's a good lengthy colt, with a good stride and a good set of lungs, and I think 1,200 meters will be no trouble.
"Guest House is a bit of a different horse. He's a big, strong brute, a very forward type of horse, and if you see him in the mounting yard, you'd see how mature and what a lovely specimen he is.
"Like any 2-year-old in the Blue Diamond, they just have to get it right. But I think Guest House is no worries at the trip."
Treasurethe Moment set for Futurity return
Matt Laurie's stable star Treasurethe Moment is set to make her return to the racetrack Saturday when tackling Caulfield's Futurity Stakes (G1) at 1,400 meters (about 7 furlongs). The 4-year-old mare has been off the track since running fourth in the Champions Mile (G1) Nov. 8, and headed to Caulfield for a final gallop under regular rider Damian Lane Tuesday.
"I couldn't be more proud of the horse and in her last three preparations she's been able to knock off some group 1s, and hopefully she can do it for a fourth time," Laurie said. "I've got a similar feeling as when we went into the Memsie, but I'm not sure where the speed is going to be in this particular race. Damian (jockey Lane) will just ride our horse how he finds her on the day. I think she is in a good headspace and ready to go."
Laurie has revealed that another tilt at the Cox Plate (G1), a race she finished third in last year, is very much on the agenda.
"She's a bit older, a bit stronger, and she's very aware every time we put her on a track nowadays," he said. "I can't wait to kick her off and see where the preparation leads. Coming into this preparation I was of the feeling that I would give her a light one, give her a nice break for another crack at the Cox Plate. We'll run in the Futurity, then the All-Star Mile then we'll play it by ear after that. She's an incredible horse and I feel very privileged to have her."
Oakleigh Plate long-range plan comes to fruition for Don't Hope Do
Connections of Don't Hope Do will chase a breakthrough at the highest level in Saturday's Oakleigh Plate (G1) at Caulfield. Trainer Simon Zahra has enjoyed past success in the race, preparing Booker to win in 2019 when in a training partnership with Mathew Ellerton. He was also part of winning teams with River Dove (2003), Miss Kournikova (2001), and Sports (2000).
"We didn't think Booker could win," Zahra said. "We knew what type it takes, and whether this bloke is up to that class, time will tell, but the weight (52.5 kilograms) certainly helps."
A four-time winner from 15 starts, Don't Hope Do has ventured into stakes grade twice, finishing fourth in the Wylie Handicap at Morphettville last spring before a first-up second in the Rubiton Stakes (G2) at Caulfield Feb. 7.
"We've placed him quite well over the last 12 months, but I said probably 18 months ago, the Oakleigh Plate was the race for him," Zahra said. "He loves the 1,100 meters at Caulfield. We put him up against better sprinters in the Rubiton at set weights. We didn't have him screwed down, we left a little in the tank in case we got into the Oakleigh Plate and we've got him there."
Don't Hope Do drops 4.5 kilograms from the Rubiton and boasts three placings from as many Caulfield runs. "He might get to the front a bit easier with Jigsaw and some of those horses not running," the trainer said. "We've drawn well (in barrier 7), so we'll see how we go."
